Media Release (update)

Two men arrested for a late-night robbery Sunday (January 4) at a movie theater in Kailua-Kona were charged with first-degree robbery and other offenses Tuesday afternoon.

Twenty-four-year-old Darrell L. Sliva Jr. and 21-year-old Ryan Tobias, both of Kailua-Kona, are being held at the Kona police cellblock, each in lieu of $4,750 bail.

At approximately 11 p.m. Sunday, Kona patrol officers responded to a report of an after-hours robbery in a theater on Alii Drive. Upon arrival, they were told that two men in the theater had confronted a female employee. The men, who wore hooded jackets and bandanas over their faces, held the employee at gunpoint and demanded cash and the combination to the safe. After the woman said she was unable to provide the combination, the men bound her wrists and ankles and then fled with an undisclosed amount of her personal cash.

An hour later, police located Silva and Tobias, who were wearing clothing matching the description of the men in the theater. As officers approached them, the men attempted to flee. Police arrested them without incident.

Detectives from the Area II Criminal Investigations Section continued the investigation and discovered that Silva and Tobias had entered the movie theater on two previous occasions.

Early on the morning of December 27, the men entered the premises and damaged a glass window between the projection room and the viewing room. On January 3 after midnight, they entered the premises and stole some lights and tools valued at $96.

Each man was charged with first-degree robbery, third-degree assault, third-degree theft and third-degree criminal property damage for the January 4 incident; second-degree burglary and second-degree criminal property damage for the December 27 incident; and second-degree burglary and fourth-degree theft for the January 3 incident.